Must-Have L.E. & Tactical Products

Dealers Identify Firearms, Optics And
Other Accessories From SHOT Show

By Carolee Anita Boyles

Buyers from law enforcement agencies and the military crowded in with distributors and independent retailers at the 2016 SHOT Show, all looking to see what’s new at the nearly 500 law enforcement and tactical exhibitors. One thing several attendees mentioned was the presence of dogs at the show, both personal service dogs and working K9s.

“Some handlers were doing demonstrations,” said Jordan Blake, match director for Salute To Valor Veteran’s 3-Gun Charity Match in Houston. “The handlers were saying ‘Ask me about what we do,’ and it was really neat to see this kind of exposure.”

With a 24-inch barrel and built-in 20 MOA Picatinny rail on top of both the handguard
and receiver, the Watchman 2.0 in .300 Win. Mag. is built for long-range shooting.
Additional features include a Magpul PRS sniper stock and the NEMO Arrow B1 muzzlebrake.

Firearms And Parts

In the SIG SAUER booth Michael Milburn, owner of Premier Tactical in Scottsdale, Ari., liked the Legion series of handguns. “It’s nice to see a big manufacturer listening to the users and incorporating their wishes into the design of the handguns,” he observed.

Joseph Long, owner of Long Arms in El Paso, Ark., liked the Heizer Defense pocket AR and pocket AK. “I love it’s a pistol that fires a .223 or 7.62x39mm round and drops right into my pocket,” he said.

The MGI Hydra from MGI Military also caught Long’s attention. “It’s a modular MSR weapon system with a two-part receiver,” he noted. “It has interchangeable magwells that come in the MSR standard, AK, GLOCK 9mm and Colt 9mm, and they’re working on .45. Their barrel system is quick-change also, which uses a cam-lock system to swap the barrels back and forth.”

In the Serbu Firearms booth, company president Mark Serbu said the newest offering is the RN-50, a .50 BMG-caliber single-shot rifle. “It’s a break-action .50-caliber, which has never been done before,” he said. “It’s made entirely from existing parts of the guns we’ve been building for 17 years, and it breaks down and fits into a small case.” Serbu expects one big attraction to the RN-50 to be the price, which he has set at $1,199.

At Stag Arms, Steve Panzella was showing left-handed ARs. “We’re one of the few companies making them,” he noted. “This year we’re also offering Cerakoting on all our rifles in four colors. You can get it on the left-handed rifles as well.”

WMD Guns has a new .308, the Big Beast. “A lot of people don’t realize we sell fully coated firearms, as well as coated firearms parts,” said Michael Vetter of WMD Guns. “We also have a new Type III Plus anodized coating. So we have a whole arsenal of coatings to choose from for special applications.”

Utilizing solar and battery power, the PARALOW HS503C from Holosun is a compact
red-dot sight that can be installed on long guns, pistols, airguns and crossbows.

Optics

“I’ve been a Leupold fan for a decade,” Blake said. “I was excited to see their optics and get my hands on them and look at them and compare the different reticles. The one that really got my interest was the D-EVO [introduced last year].”

The coolest new thing from EOTech is the VUDU line of magnified optics, said Director of Marketing John Bailey. “For years we’ve made holographic sights great for close quarters and speed of acquisition,” he noted. “Now we’re getting into more medium- and long-range applications with our line of magnified scopes. Our initial introduction is all first focal plane, all tactical, with one-piece aluminum bodies in either 30mm or 34mm.”

In the Hawke Optics booth, Regional Sales Manager Joshua Friedman pointed out two new scopes in the Frontier line. “They both come with either a standard LR dot in a long-range reticle or our TMX grid reticle. They’re 1,000-yard shooting scopes. We also have our Panorama scope, which is our wide-angle scope. It has availability in a 10X mil-dot with red and blue illumination,” he added.

At Night Vision Depot, Marketing Manager Catherine Zile discussed the Knight’s Armament weapon sights. These have long been available for the military and L.E. markets, she said, and have just become available to the civilian market as well. “They’re clip-ons, which clip right to the front of your day scope on your Picatinny rail,” she said. “You use the magnification of the day scope through the system at night. There’s no sighting in needed; when you’re done, you just take it off. They operate on AA batteries with about eight hours of continuous use.”

The Maxim Defense CQB Stock was one of the top five most scanned products at the
2016 SHOT Show’s New Product Center. At its most collapsed position, the stock
adds 5.5 inches to an MSR.

Bianchi unveiled the Model 145 Subdue IWB holster at the 2016 SHOT Show.
As part of the Allusion line, the Subdue offers deep concealment in a
leather and synthetic combination.

Other Accessories

“We do more suppressor sales than anything else, so we focused on this product category,” said Kurt Underwood, managing owner of JNK Tactical in Vilonia, Ark. “The two suppressors we were most interested in were the SilencerCo Hybrid and the SilencerCo Omega 9K for a 9mm. The Hybrid really piqued our interest because it’s so versatile. You can use it on anything from a small-caliber pistol up to a large-caliber rifle.”

Russell Alan Moles at Volunteer Supply Company in Knoxville, Tenn., liked a lot of the new Streamlight products. “I really liked their new ProTac Rail Mount light,” he said. “They’re lighter and smaller than anything I’ve seen before.”

At Longshot Manufacturing, Jerry Arpaio demonstrated the company’s aluminum Picatinny rails with up to 40 slots. “We have the widest range (from three to 40 slots) in aluminum,” he noted, “and it’s all made here in the U.S. The longer rails are important for versatility, and so people can find out where they want their accessories positioned on their gun. Our rails are very accurately made and have a high instance of return to zero, so you can take things off and put them back on and everything goes right back to where it was sighted in.”

The RISE Concealable Armor System from Angel Armor was developed thanks to
the input of 1,500 officers. It’s available in NIJ Level IIIA and NIJ Level
II threat levels.

Action Trackchair’s ST series allows wounded veterans the opportunity
to shoot and hunt. There are several models and sizes available.

Everything Else

“It was exciting to see the all-terrain wheelchairs,” Blake said. “One of my acquaintances was one of the first people to get one, and he has used it to shoot competitively and hunt. It’s good to see those adaptive resources for veterans who are struggling with obstacles.” Action TrackChair manufactures the chairs.

Michael Saunders, vice president of Patriot Tactical in Franklin, Ind., liked the holsters he saw at Safariland and Q-Series. “I also visited Holosun,” he added. “They had some solar-powered optic sights, which is intriguing.”

Saunders is planning to build a range in the near future, so he spent a lot of time talking to manufacturers of shooting range equipment. “I talked to Shooting Range Industries,” he said. “They provide everything from beginning to end, as far as putting a range together is concerned. They build the range for you; they have the target retrieval system. They even build modular systems you can take from place to place — they’re a one-stop shop.”

In the HT Holsters booth, Matt Moul-ton asserted the company’s holsters are designed on an adjustable platform able to fit almost every major holster in the industry. “The Safariland, Blade-Tech and BLACKHAWK! holsters will all mount into our system,” he added.

Milburn liked what he saw at ZQI ammunition. “I’m a belt-fed machine gun shooter, and any time I see 7.62 ammunition down around $0.50 a round, I’m interested,” he said. “I’ve shot some of this ammo, and I’ve been impressed with the pressures and the accuracy of the ammo for its price point.”

At Angel Armor, Communications Manager Reed Doughty said the company interviewed 1,500 officers and asked for their input in developing a vest system. “From those responses, we designed the RISE concealable armor system,” he added. “It has a ballistic suspension system that connects directly to the ballistic package for comfortable fit. We also got rid of the Velcro and use a high end synthetic rubber strap for a repeatable and customized fit.”

Angel Armor’s Truth SNAP magnetic trauma plate system also offers different levels of protection in a single vest.

Neal was searching for magazine organization products to sell at his store. “I was looking for something to let us have all our magazines strapped to our vehicles and ready to go,” he said. “I found that in the MagSafe from MagStorage Solutions. They have the MagSafe 6, which is really good for tactical operators to have instant access in their vehicles to magazine racks.”

Neal also liked the new Mag-Pump AR magazine loader from Tektite. “It’s tremendous,” he observed. “Maxim Defense also had a new collapsible tactical stock I was really impressed with.”